THE MUSICAL STAGE
Chapter 8
Early History of Musical Theater Musical rituals date back as far as 30,000
B.C.E.
Music song and dance combine to create Dionysian festivals in early Greece
Elizabethan theater included music
Opera was developed in Italy in the late seventeenth century
Mozart
Many say his operas have never been surpassed.
Signature style: melodious arias alternating with dialogue, sometimes spoken but mostly sung. This solved the problem of telling a dramatic story in song.
Terms
Sung dialogue is called recitative
The combination of recitative and song is called singspiel Singspiel is sometimes hard to
listen to because it is not melodious like a song
Libretto- the lyrics and recitatives of an opera
Most popular of Mozart’s work
2 lowly servants outwit the master of the house
Finale is “what it would sound like if God could sing!”
Romantic movement protests restraint
Verdi’s operas are melodramas with music
Characters are thwarted by social restrictions
The Marriage of FigaroVerdi and the Romantic Opera
Richard Wagner
Romanticism fostered nationalism (Germany)
Wanted to create true music-drama that would be in the same class as Sophocles and Shakespeare
Gave Germany a mythology
Operetta vs. Opera
Spoken dialogue moves the play forward but is continually interrupted by arias
Shortened spaces between songs
Many songs, 2 dimensional characters
All or most of dialogue is sung
Desire to create works that are elegant and noble
Heavier than operetta
More complicated
Other Famous Operas
Porgy and Bess Amahl and the
Night Visitors Candide Sweeney Todd The Ghost of
Versailles
Broadway Musicals
Of Thee I Sing Satire of
Presidential Politics
Candidates will do anything to win the election
Pal Joey Deepened the
Broadway musical and deserves to be called a musical play
Led to others wanting greater depth in the genre
About the courtship of a cowboy and a farm girl
Includes folk dance, ballet
Took musical stage in a startling new direction
Modernization of Romeo and Juliette
Arias have become classics
Rival gangs of New York
Oklahoma! West Side Story
Dance
Egyptians took part in elaborate dance ceremonies
Greece marked the beginning of dance as an official form of public entertainment
Dance awakens the Dionysian spirit in all of us
Ballet
Known as the premier form of dance art
Athletic, yet graceful Classical ballet often
tells a story, but is not needed
Giselle Tchaikosvsky-Swan
Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker
Modern Dance
Breaks with classical tradition
Starts with classical moves but then adds in athleticism, complex variations
Mikhail Baryshnikov- famous modern dancer/now actor
Famous Modern Dance Choreographers
Martha Graham Agnes De Mille Michael Bennett Jose Limon Twyla Tharp
Folkloric Dance
Rooted in time honored values and customs
Usually vastly different from formal dance, requires little or no training
Native American Traditional Forms
Potlatch-Northwest tradition where community members come together to feast and dance to celebrate special occasions
Bear Dance-far west, reenactment of a ceremony ritualizing the hunt
Powwow-plains, sequence-grand entry, signing of anthem, series of dances representing life activities (planting, harvest, courtship, marriage)
Mexican Folkloric Ballet vs. Asian Dance
Highly trained dancers
“Set Pieces”-Stag Dance, love, marriage, cycle of life
Joyous mood, colorful
Every dancer is a monk
Black metal caps adorned with peacock feathers, purposely monotonous to still emotions
Next dance, colorful silk because they believe color can be experienced temporarily
Flamenco
Spanish, from Gypsy songs
4 females, 2 males, 2 guitars and 2 singers